1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polymerizable compound useful for a variety of uses including materials of a variety of optical members, such as optically anisotropic films and heat shielding films. In addition, the invention relates to a polymerizable liquid crystalline composition, a macromolecular compound and a film for which the polymerizable compound is used.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a demand for a decrease in the size of a liquid crystal display apparatus, and, accordingly, there has been a demand for a decrease in the thickness of an optical film. For example, it is possible to decrease the film thickness by using a liquid crystal exhibiting a high Δn as an optical film such as a wave plate. Δn is one of the important basic physical properties of a liquid crystalline compound, and a liquid crystal exhibiting a high Δn can be used in many industrial fields, such as a wave plate, a polarization element, a selective reflection film, a color filter, an antireflection film, a viewing angle compensation film, holography and an oriented film which are components of an optical element (Non-Patent Literature 1).
In the past, a variety of compounds having an azomethine bond were proposed as a polymerizable liquid crystalline compound having a high Δn (Patent Literatures 1 to 4). All of the compounds described in the above patent literatures have a structure represented by -Ph1-CH═N-Ph2- [here, Ph1 and Ph2 represent a 1,4-phenylene group] in the molecule, and other structural examples are not described.